Tout commence à s'éclaircir

Well, things are beginning to take shape. The whole "Pro Forma or no?" question was sorta settled for me when I realized that taking a leave of absence would cause me to lose my full-time student status @ U of C, which possibly means I lose my US student visa. Now, I just need to fill out a bunch of forms and convince my dept chair to sign off on it. Also, I have to write a pretty detailed cover letter to the dean (of students) of the humanities division to convince him that what I'm up to in Paris is ProForma-worthy. On the "How do I organize August?" front, it seems like my bro's engagement party will probably be the week of August 13-18, so I can now start thinking about how and when I'll start moving out my stuff. I want to secure a storage space from early August, so I can start moving smaller, easier-to-move stuff into the space, but I'll clearly need to do the greater part of the move when I get back from Canada. This raises the question of whether I should actually leave my car in Canada when I go up for the engagement party, or whether I should just keep it with me. Also, my dad's offer to bring his Big Ass Chevy Suburban of Doom still stands, so I might just ask him to come down sometime in late Aug. I'm planning on lending some of my larger pieces of furniture to a friend who is coming to UofC for a post-doc this year, but I'm still not sure when he'll be in town. Ooh. And I need to figure out how much it'll cost me to send a few packages to myself in Paris. There is a few books that I want to read while I'm in Paris, but I don't want to put them in my luggage. Gah! The work never ends!